No more handouts for Big Oil

Every year, our government hands billions of taxpayer dollars over to the oil and gas industries in tax breaks.

Stop and think about that for a moment:

While millions of people go hungry every night, we funnel huge sums of money to some of the most profitable companies in the history of the world.

While millions of acres of Oregon, Washington, and California burn, and thousands of families on the east coast endure catastrophic hurricanes, we're lining the pockets of the environmental criminals who caused them.

While Congressional Republicans grumble that guaranteeing the basic human right to health care would cost too much, they're all too happy to pad the bottom lines of the corporations that poison our water and air.

This week, I told Big Oil and Gas they've squeezed working families enough – more­ than enough – when I introduced legislation to eliminate the subsidies, close the loopholes, and cut off the welfare in the tax code for the wealthy, destructive fossil fuel corporations. With the money we save, our country can finally invest in the clean energy technologies that will revive our economy and protect our planet.

Republicans will parrot the industry lie that clean energy can't compete with dirty fossil fuels. Here's the truth: for all their talk of the "free market," big polluters have depended on those subsidies –­ out of our pockets – to rig the system.

For decades, Big Oil and Gas have used our own money to lie to us, make us sick, and wreck the environment. I'm proud to lead the fight to end the failed, immoral handouts of the past and invest in our clean energy future.

Courage,

Earl